Being sneaky is an art in 'Tenchu'

"Ninja: any of a class of feudal Japanese warriors highly trained in stealth and employed as spies and assassins."

So says Webster's New World College Dictionary. It's a perfect description of what goes on in "Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven," K2 and Activision's latest iteration for the PlayStation 2.

The key word is stealth, the latest fad to hit the video game industry. Slipping up behind enemies and slicing them like sushi before they know you're there is rewarded, while toe-to-toe battles usually get you dead or badly wounded.

You play as either Rikimaru, a ninja sect leader, or Ayame, a young woman trained since childhood in the ways of the ninja. There's also a third character, the mysterious Tesshu.

You find yourself tasked with a variety of missions, all of which reward you for going undetected. In one, you have to assassinate a rich businessman while not harming any of the men who guard him.

A press of one button lets you either crouch or flatten your character against a wall. In either case, you are apparently very hard to see, because guards will walk right past where you're lurking without spotting you.

You can also run if spotted and hide behind a wall or inside a room, and your pursuers will give up the chase pretty quickly.

Things have changed since the previous two versions, and some of those changes are distinct improvements. There's now an excellent lock-on which helps you target enemies if you do have to fight.

There's a nice variety of items you can carry with you, including flasks to refill your lifeline, lethal throwing stars and a bow and quiver of arrows. You are equipped with a useful grappling hook which gives you access to building roofs or crawl spaces in the ceiling. It even lets you grab enemies and pull them close for a finishing stroke.

Graphics get a B. There's plenty of detail and the characters are realistic, but colors are rather bland. Cut scenes are dramatic, as are the stealth killing scenes, in which the computer takes over to show you dispatching the hapless enemy in a gout of blood.

Control gets a C+. Operating your personal ninja is easy, and easy to learn. But the Achilles' heel of many games, the troublesome camera, isn't always where it needs to be and even controlling it manually doesn't always let you see what you want.

Sounds gets a B. Lovely, evocative background music helps get you in the mood for mayhem. Combat sounds also are solid, while the voice acting is weak. At least the developers didn't include blaring rock music.

"Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven" gets a B. It's a lot of fun to play, especially if you enjoy the new stealth titles more than the nonstop gunfire made popular in such gore-fests as "Doom." It has some flaws, but overall it's a great way to hone your sneaking skills and have some fun in the process.